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You are here: Home / Climate Change / How about that weather? / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Is It Friday Yet?

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Is It Friday Yet?

by Anne Laurie|  September 2, 20218:01 am| 244 Comments

This post is in: How about that weather?, Open Threads, President Biden

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: Hoarse

(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)

President Biden will visit Louisiana on Friday to survey the destruction left by Hurricane Ida. The storm likely caused tens of billions of dollars in flood, wind and other damage. https://t.co/kVpD0KXXEq

— The Associated Press (@AP) September 1, 2021

Biden declares emergency in California over Caldor fire https://t.co/UQhcc5Yp0C pic.twitter.com/Ed5tfPjZNg

— Reuters (@Reuters) September 2, 2021


Biden backs lasting support for Ukraine as both nations move on from the Trump-era obsession with Kyiv https://t.co/uYkfvy4xod

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 2, 2021

Last night another Republican member of Congress told an audience of brainwiped white supremacists they need to murder Democrats to overturn the next presidential election

Politico Playbook—a GOP newsletter that aggregates politics news—didn’t even mention it

But they did say: pic.twitter.com/ILafmv4J96

— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) August 31, 2021

First time I read Mr. Darmofal’s tweet, I was a little… suspicious. But his thesis is beginning to grow on me:

There have been a lot of ageist attacks on President Biden, including from the left. But I sincerely wonder if a younger president, more concerned about his/her legacy, would have had the courage to make the difficult decision he did. I hope this leads people to be less ageist.

— David Darmofal (@david_darmofal) August 30, 2021

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Previous Post: « COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday / Thursday, Sept. 1-2
Next Post: Medicaid Expansion holdouts: Means vs Mores »

Reader Interactions

244Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:01 am

    Good Morning Everyone ???

  2. 2.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 8:03 am

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning.

  3. 3.

    debbie

    September 2, 2021 at 8:04 am

    I agree with that last tweet. We are lucky to have someone in charge who isn’t focusing on his legacy. He already has that.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 8:05 am

    Interesting politico piece on the sausage making.  Ignore the GOP propaganda at the end.

    Democrats race to resolve House-Senate disputes on $3.5T megabill

     

    “It is pushing it. All we can do is try,” said House Budget Chair John Yarmuth.

  5. 5.

    JMG

    September 2, 2021 at 8:06 am

    I know there are folks on this board for whom this is a regular if scary part of life, but this Massachusetts resident found it very hard to go back to sleep after the phone beeped its 2 am tornado warning and the warning expired 30 minutes later.

  6. 6.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    September 2, 2021 at 8:07 am

    Actually, I’m getting more ageist as I age, because at the cusp of 60, I look at the 70+ crowd as being a lot less indispensable in important positions than they do.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:07 am

    I have seen so many of these in my lifetime, as a Black woman in America.

    But, reading this yesterday, even after hearing about the indictments, it broke my heart and made me cry ?.

     

    RIP Elijah ??

     

    Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) tweeted at 5:56 PM on Wed, Sep 01, 2021:
    Elijah McClain’s final words…

    “My name is Elijah McClain. That’s my house. I was just going home. I’m an introvert. I’m just different. That’s all. I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do any fighting. Why are you attacking me?”

    #JusticeForElijahMcClain
    (https://twitter.com/DerrickNAACP/status/1433202130266038278?s=03)

  8. 8.

    MomSense

    September 2, 2021 at 8:11 am

    My age cohort, Gen X, had their brains wiped by Ronald Raygun. Look at all the Gen X Republican politicians. That’s why. Yes, there are exceptions but, for the most part, Dem pols are Boomers or Millenials.

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:12 am

    Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) tweeted at 6:40 AM on Thu, Sep 02, 2021:
    As of today, abortion is effectively illegal for most women in the nation’s second most populous state.
    (https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1433394418082537476?s=03)

  10. 10.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 8:12 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: 

    No one is indispensable.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:12 am

     

    Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) tweeted at 6:54 AM on Thu, Sep 02, 2021:
    Justice Sotomayor: “ … A majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand … Taken together, the Act is a breathtaking act of defiance—of the Constitution, of this Court’s precedents, and of the rights of women seeking abortions throughout Texas.”
    (https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/1433397863980142595?s=03)

  12. 12.

    MomSense

    September 2, 2021 at 8:13 am

    @rikyrah:

    The police even attacked the musicians who went to the park to play in his honor.  He was a beautiful soul.  I hope his murderers are convicted.

  13. 13.

    zhena gogolia

    September 2, 2021 at 8:13 am

    @JMG:

    I got hardly any sleep in CT, and today we meet the first-year students!

  14. 14.

    MattF

    September 2, 2021 at 8:13 am

    OT. There is a kind of skunk that performs a hand-stand before it sprays you. An expert on these creatures says they mostly keep to themselves and don’t spray if you approach quietly, but ‘… some of them are just jerks’.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 8:14 am

    @JMG:

    Tornados are scary. I don’t go down in the cellar anymore at the first warning because I found out what they sound like when they’re closer and you really can’t miss it. It sounds like a train.

  16. 16.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:14 am

     

    Kenny BooYah! ?? (@KwikWarren) tweeted at 10:07 PM on Wed, Sep 01, 2021:
    I want2know what percentage of the ppl screaming at President Biden&the Dems to “Pack the court!” actually voted for Dems in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020. Obama begged ppl2vote. Hillary begged ppl2vote. This bullshit got started when ppl stayed home during 2010 midterms.
    (https://twitter.com/KwikWarren/status/1433265339446464517?s=03)

  17. 17.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 8:14 am

    @rikyrah:

    If a blue state allowed bounties against religious practices or against corporations who break the law, I’m confident the vote would have come out differently.

  18. 18.

    debbie

    September 2, 2021 at 8:15 am

    @JMG:

    I lived in different parts of New England for about 25 years and only remember tornadoes occurring once, so I understand your shock. Not that those middle-of-the-night buzzes help the situation…

  19. 19.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 8:16 am

    @rikyrah:

    I think the dissents are important because most people (most of the small group who will read about it at all) will read the quotes pulled from the dissents.

  20. 20.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 2, 2021 at 8:16 am

    I had to walk away from the news yesterday. The Texas law filled me with something between despair and homicidal rage.

  21. 21.

    geg6

    September 2, 2021 at 8:17 am

    @MomSense:

    This.

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:17 am

     

    Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) tweeted at 6:54 AM on Thu, Sep 02, 2021:
    NEW: Texas law could flip the script on abortion politics.

    Republicans have benefited from a “safe space” to stir up their base against abortion with little electoral downside as Roe was secure.

    Now that safe space is now gone.

    w/ ⁦@aseitzwald⁩ ? https://t.co/ZOiAjLk0ty
    (https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1433397880329539589?s=03)

  23. 23.

    geg6

    September 2, 2021 at 8:19 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Me too.  I’m still incandescent with rage.

  24. 24.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 8:19 am

    @Baud:

    The bounties are only the official money behind it. Right wing donors can pump it full of money and pay the deputized- citizen pregnancy investigators and fund the litigation. They can bury people. They won’t have a chance.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 8:19 am

    @rikyrah: 

    Why was there a safe space in the first place? We’re the exact opposite for the right. They invent threats to be outraged by them, and we ignore threats that are right in front of face yelling at us about how much of a threat they are.

  26. 26.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    September 2, 2021 at 8:20 am

    A tornado caused some damage in Annapolis yesterday. WTF! It was a few miles from where lived for 4 years. Madness.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 8:21 am

    @Kay:

    Sure, just like much of Jim Crow was enforced by the Klan concerned citizens.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 8:23 am

     

    They can create and fund a whole private “law enforcement system” composed entirely of far Right investigators on a religious/ideological mission to turn in their neighbors. Well, “neighbors”. They’ll be professionals posing as citizen-enforcers of the new pregnancy laws so “neighbors” is a stretch. They won’t actually reside in your neighborhood. They’ll have a PO Box in suburban DC environs.

  29. 29.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:24 am

     

    ???

    No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) tweeted at 11:16 PM on Wed, Sep 01, 2021:
    Now that Brett Kavanaugh just voted to virtually end Roe v. Wade, here are all of the times that Susan Collins said Brett Kavanaugh won’t overturn Roe v. Wade. https://t.co/ShHiEn7Hcm
    (https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1433282668515504132?s=03)

  30. 30.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 8:25 am

    @Kay:

    Sotomayor

    In effect, the Texas Legislature has deputized the State’s citizens as bounty hunters, offering them cash prizes for civilly prosecuting their neighbors’ medical procedures.

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:26 am

    ???

     

    Aaron Astor (@AstorAaron) tweeted at 6:18 AM on Thu, Sep 02, 2021:
    When can private citizens sue others for being unvaccinated? Because if you don’t think that will happen, you don’t understand the law of unintended consequences.
    (https://twitter.com/AstorAaron/status/1433388830397173761?s=03)

  32. 32.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 8:28 am

    @Baud:

    She’s great. I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with a SCOTUS like I agree with her approach and her general philosophy.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    September 2, 2021 at 8:28 am

    @Baud: I had a boss who used to say that if someone who worked for him was indispensable he would fire them immediately.

  34. 34.

    MJS

    September 2, 2021 at 8:30 am

    @Baud: There has to be some fuckery available to us that can gum up this monstrosity of a law.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 8:31 am

    @Baud:

    I’m glad they already set up a website to list and target the potential pregnancy law violators. They’d deny it if we hadn’t seen it.

    Gross. The authoritarian impulse is always right there. They can’t wait to haul people in on charges.

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:33 am

    @Kay:  on point

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:34 am

    @Kay:

    Yep.

    Showed their azzes

  38. 38.

    Mary G

    September 2, 2021 at 8:34 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    @geg6:

    And Momsense, since for whatever reason my “Reply” button wacked out.

    Beyond the world angry.

  39. 39.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    September 2, 2021 at 8:35 am

    Couple of salient observations:

    1. If a howling pack of enraged women chased down Leonard Leo and hacked him up into little Leonard Leo pieces with machetes and splitting mauls, I’d want it on video so I could watch each scream over and over.

    2. Burn Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Duke to the ground. Scatter and salt the rubble.

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    September 2, 2021 at 8:36 am

    Old tech never dies, it just goes rhythmic.

    ;)

  41. 41.

    Denali

    September 2, 2021 at 8:37 am

    I can’t believe the Supreme Court let the bounty hunters provision stand. What are we East Germany?  The only alternative, as Betty Bowers suggested, is to flood the hotline with bogus reports. It is insane.

  42. 42.

    debbie

    September 2, 2021 at 8:37 am

    @Baud:

    I hope those bounty hunters are in turn sued for harassment and false arrest (or whatever they’re calling it there).

  43. 43.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 8:38 am

    @Kay:

    Whether its forced birth or regulating private business’s right to deny service to antivaxxers, when I think of Texas, the word that comes to mine is FREEDOM.

  44. 44.

    debbie

    September 2, 2021 at 8:38 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I returned to using my RBG Dissent pin as my FB profile pic. Bastards.

  45. 45.

    Shakti

    September 2, 2021 at 8:40 am

    MoveOn  is asking to sign a petition to Democratic members of Congress and three bucks is going to help. I feel like they always ask this. They’re not pretending that talking to Republican members of Congress is going to do anything, so progress?

    I don’t see any bills in the FL statehouse, (which is Republican super-majority) on this Texas law template. Usually with something so heinous they have ALEC style bills popping up everywhere ready to go, like they did with SB1070 type bills. Could be that I’m checking too soon.

    I’m guessing this “Parental Rights Bill” is a “don’t give my kid a covid vaccine bill”

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 8:40 am

    @rikyrah:

    Not sure what Cohen’s point is. Collins is Senator-for-Life, as most Rethug Senators are, because there is almost NOTHING a Rethug could do to make his/her supporters vote for a Demon-crap. I have, more than once, tried to conjure a scenario where Party of Traitors voters will get so disgusted with their (usually) boy that they vote for a Dem. Maybe I’m not imaginative enough, but I can’t come up with one.

    And, as the 2020 vote shows, a lot of the “independents” won’t either. Mainers voted for Collins because Sara Gideon wasn’t born there? WTF?

  47. 47.

    John S.

    September 2, 2021 at 8:41 am

    @MomSense: Agreed. I’m a GenXer, but I’m definitely not in the Republican camp either. Never have been, never will be.

  48. 48.

    rikyrah

    September 2, 2021 at 8:41 am

     

    Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) tweeted at 11:04 AM on Wed, Sep 01, 2021:
    Republican justices ended a woman’s right to choose in Texas. That’s what happens when anonymous right-wing donors control the Supreme Court and precedent ceases to matter.
    (https://twitter.com/SenWhitehouse/status/1433098384165023750?s=03)

  49. 49.

    Starfish

    September 2, 2021 at 8:42 am

    @MJS: People have already been stuffing the reporting system until they get their IPs banned. Anyway, remember to use a VPN when you stuff the reporting system so that you cannot get banned by IP.

  50. 50.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    September 2, 2021 at 8:44 am

    @Baud:

    “I won’t be blackmailed into supporting a neoliberal corporate shill like Hillary just because of the Supreme Court. My vote is MINE and must be earned!”

  51. 51.

    Mary G

    September 2, 2021 at 8:45 am

    All right. I’m gonna get up and go primal scream outside for a while who’s with me— Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady) September 2, 2021

  52. 52.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 8:46 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    My vote is MINE

    All your uterus are belong to us, however.

  53. 53.

    Starfish

    September 2, 2021 at 8:46 am

    @NotMax: That is one of my favorites.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 8:47 am

    @kristoncapps
    ·31m
    “The Court’s inaction has had immediate impact. Two hours before the Act took effect, one applicant reported that its waiting rooms were ‘filled with patients’ urgently seeking care while ‘protesters [we]re outside, shining lights on the parking [lot].’”

    Deputized far Right prenancy police already on the beat.

    Wait until you see the lavish funding of the lawsuits. In 6 months there will be pregnancy investigators making big salaries based on number of people they target. The Right pays really, really well.

  55. 55.

    Woodrow/asim

    September 2, 2021 at 8:48 am

    Not directed to anyone here, just…I really could give a damn about whose Democrat’s fault this is, at this point. That’s for another time, y’all! People — especially those without means to travel outside Texas and the other states that will surely follow suit — are going to be in even more harm than they already were.

    Roe was already, for far too many people, a Dead Letter for years. People have been fighting to keep abortion an option for too long, and they need more help — more HOPE — than ever before.

    I might suggest to this blog to gather up some of the abortion groups on the ground in Texas, for a front-page post to point people to supporting them?

    Here’s who I have, so far:

    https://janesdueprocess.org

    https://fronterafundrgv.org/

    https://www.theafiyacenter.org/

    https://teafund.org/

    https://www.lilithfund.org/

    https://fundtexaschoice.org/

    https://www.clinicaccess.org/

    https://www.westfund.org/

    https://www.bucklebunnies.org/

    https://www.raicestexas.org/ (NOTE: RAICES has explicitly said they will not respect SB6)

    There are some ActBlue efforts, as well; I’ve not cataloged them yet.

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 8:48 am

    @Kay:

    Gross. The authoritarian impulse is always right there. They can’t wait to haul people in on charges.

    I don’t recall if Texas is a Stand Your Ground state, but it would be interesting to contemplate. If some non-LEO person is trying to detain me, and I’m in fear of my life, can I respond as if I’m in fear of my life? Of course, the persons standing their ground would still be prosecuted, because now vigilantes are “duly-appointed law enforcement officers,” so tough shit for me.

    In case it wasn’t obvious, I’m not a lawyer. But it would seem to be an interesting scenario.

  57. 57.

    Denali

    September 2, 2021 at 8:48 am

    @Starfish,

     

    What is a VPN?

  58. 58.

    Joe Falco

    September 2, 2021 at 8:48 am

    @MJS: 

    There’s already people suggesting overloading the abortion Stasi website with fake reports. Not sure if it’ll be effective, but it sounds like an idea in the right direction.

  59. 59.

    Starfish

    September 2, 2021 at 8:49 am

    @John S.: But this “I am not in any party” thing is usually just young folks who think “disengaged” is a sign of their intelligence.

    I mean, I know we were a generation of social outcasts that hated institutions, but we are slowly learning that some of the punk heroes were just contrary to things that were popular as they turn out to have some really terrible positions as they age.

  60. 60.

    Woodrow/asim

    September 2, 2021 at 8:50 am

    I’m in the spam filter, help! :)

    I posted a bunch of links to Texas folx fighting this, and I reckon the spam caught me (I forget about it!) Can some kind person check the backend and see if this is the case?

    Thanks!

  61. 61.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    September 2, 2021 at 8:51 am

    @rikyrah:

    Oh, Sheldon, my sweet summer child. Precedent doesn’t matter now, but when it’s all conservative precedent, it’ll be all majestic and shit, part of the Great and Abiding Canon of Western Law and Culture. Like Colossus standing astride a great harbor, it’ll be unmovable.

  62. 62.

    debbie

    September 2, 2021 at 8:53 am

    @Denali:

    Virtual Private Network.

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    September 2, 2021 at 8:53 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Charles de Gaulle: “The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”

  64. 64.

    debbie

    September 2, 2021 at 8:53 am

    @Joe Falco:

    Let’s woke them the fuck up. //

  65. 65.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 8:53 am

    @NotMax:

    Not as tech-y as your example, but still:

    Something I put together in my basement

    [Kidding, of course; I don’t have the brains/talent/energy to do something like that.]

  66. 66.

    Joe Falco

    September 2, 2021 at 8:54 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Precedent doesn’t matter now, but when it’s all conservative precedent, it’ll be all majestic and shit, part of the Great and Abiding Canon of Western Law and Culture. Like Colossus standing astride a great harbor, it’ll be unmovable

    See 2nd Amendment SCOTUS ruling for individual right to boomsticks.

  67. 67.

    Ohio Mom

    September 2, 2021 at 8:54 am

    @JMG:

    Some pro tips:
    A tornado watCh means weather conditions could create a tornado; a tornado waRning means one has been sighted. The mnemonic device is C comes before R.

    When we get a warning, we check the local news stations. Their meteorologists will be in front of a weather map, explaining where the storm is and which way it is heading.

    If the problematic area is say, twenty miles south of us, or way to the east, we turn over and go back to sleep.

    In the twenty years we’ve lived in this house, there have been only two occasions we felt it necessary to go down to the basement until the warning was lifted, watching the news on our phones the whole time.

    I’ve always listened for the rumbling train-coming-down-the- track sound but the closest a tornado has ever gotten to us is four miles to the north and by coincidence we were out of town then.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    September 2, 2021 at 8:57 am

    @Woodrow/asim: Your comment at #55 is now free.

  69. 69.

    Woodrow/asim

    September 2, 2021 at 8:58 am

    @Kay: In 6 months there will be pregnancy investigators making big salaries based on number of people they target. The Right pays really, really well.

    I was going to make a comparison to the Fugitive Slave Laws before I redirected my spam-caught post. It’s true — they’ll create “non-profits” that fundraise off supporting people who play PI on abortion-seekers, while pouring the billionaire bucks into those groups. The people with means will just “vacation” for their abortions, leaving the poor and marginalized to be targeted — just as they already are for so much.

    It’s worse than I feared, years ago. I used to say SCOTUS would never kill Roe directly — just drag on Roe, allowing a 1000 State-level cuts to keep milking it for money and votes. This not only spreads it out into the citizens, it makes it lucrative to hate on people getting abortions! It’s a near-perfect storm for the citizens already riled up by Right-Wing propaganda.

    SHIT.

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 8:59 am

    @Kay:

    Kay, I love reading your comments, but sometimes you depress the shit out of me. [Not complaining about you, just unhappy that the country has gotten to this stage.]

  71. 71.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 8:59 am

    @MattF: the steve-o of the forest creatures

  72. 72.

    Woodrow/asim

    September 2, 2021 at 9:00 am

    @WaterGirl: Thank you!

  73. 73.

    Starfish

    September 2, 2021 at 9:00 am

    @Denali: This paper on getting around the Great Firewall in China explains it in the “Circumvention” section. I think I really meant proxy when I said VPN, but the goal is the same. It is to make your web traffic look like it is coming from not you.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 9:00 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Your comment at #55 is now free.

    Can you work some of that magic in TX, FL, MS, AL, OK, etc? Because freedom seems to be in ever-shorter supply there.

  75. 75.

    Soprano2

    September 2, 2021 at 9:00 am

    @JMG: after the phone beeped its 2 am tornado warning and the warning expired 30 minutes later.

    I understand it can be nerve-wracking if you’re not used to it. I once talked to a woman who had moved here from Colorado in 1983 right before we had a big tornado that actually did quite a bit of damage. She said she thought the sirens were air raid sirens, and wondered if bombs were going to be dropped! I’m so used to those warnings that unless they say “There is a tornado in north Springfield” I just ignore them, especially when they say the tornado is “radar indicated”. That means no one has actually seen a tornado, they just think there is one in the clouds somewhere. I only care about the ones that could do actual damage. One of our local TV stations loves what I call “weather porn”, where they have with constant storm coverage for hours at a time. The problem is, most of the people in the path of the storm can check their phones to see what is happening – they don’t need wall-to-wall coverage on TV anymore.

  76. 76.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 9:01 am

    @Kay: peter thiel has just announced friendship ended with j.d. antivaxxx

    texas abortionist bounty law is new best friend

  77. 77.

    Peale

    September 2, 2021 at 9:04 am

    @MJS: really depends on how much cruelty you’re willing to inflict on  innocent bystanders that you’re trying to protect. If it were a much crueler me, I’d start stalking the hospitals and OBGYNs and their staffs in the districts of the sponsors of this bill. Drive them out of the business of treating pregnancy in the district. A win would be a hospital that can no longer deliver babies. Make tye obgyns in that district have to spend so much time traveling to court around the state that they can’t see patients at all. It’s cruel, but it’s a better plan than flooding the hotline with spurious cases. Target places to break the healthcare routines of tge places that elect these people. If they want to stop abortion even when medically necessary, why should they have doctors and nurses and modern medicine at all?

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    September 2, 2021 at 9:04 am

    @SFAW: If only I could!

  79. 79.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 9:05 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    “I won’t be blackmailed into supporting a neoliberal corporate shill like Hillary just because of the Supreme Court. My vote is MINE and must be earned!”

    “Give me a reason to vote for Hillary, but without using the words ‘Trump’ or ‘Supreme Court.’ ”

    As I’ve noted more than a few times in the past, I actually heard a “Democrat” say that during the 2016 campaign.

  80. 80.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 9:05 am

    @Kay: sotomayor is my favorite supreme since souter

    fitting she was nominated to fill the vacancy ol’ dave created

  81. 81.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 9:06 am

    @MontyTheClipArtMongoose:

    Sotomayor is awesome, but Souter isn’t anything to write home about.

  82. 82.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 9:06 am

    @WaterGirl:

    If only I could!

    If I wrote a strong letter to Cole, would he increase your privs? That might do the trick.

    [Don’t worry, I WOULDN’T USE ALL CAPS.]

  83. 83.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 9:07 am

    @SFAW:

    “Give me a reason to vote for Hillary, but without using the words ‘Trump’ or ‘Supreme Court.’ ”

    Hillary, hell, they were saying pretty much the same about Biden post Coney-Barrett. “He needs to give me a reason…”

  84. 84.

    Soprano2

    September 2, 2021 at 9:07 am

    @Kay: Luckily, I’ve never had that particular experience with a tornado. My paternal grandmother was picked up and carried by a tornado when she was 11. She had a bump on her foot from it that made it hard for her to wear most shoes, but otherwise she was unharmed (except mentally, I cannot imagine how terrifying that was for an 11-year-old girl).

  85. 85.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 9:07 am

    @Baud:

    Sotomayor is awesome, but Souter isn’t anything to write home about.

    Unless there are goats?

  86. 86.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 9:08 am

    @Denali: nah, we’re romania

    didn’t see ceausescu getting to be a part of national-conservative mythos, what with how lionizing a romanian will rub the nat-cs boy orban the wrong way, but here we are

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 2, 2021 at 9:09 am

    Just saw some Twitter kid lol’ing about how there’s no reason to vote Democratic in the midterms because, among other things, they “failed to protect reproductive rights”. If that’s a common attitude we’re fucked.

    (Fucking government, how does it work?)

  88. 88.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 2, 2021 at 9:10 am

    @Kay: That site should be flooded with names, starting with every legislator who voted for the law. Make it unusable. Crash it.

  89. 89.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 9:10 am

    @Matt McIrvin: Not that it couldn’t be genuine lefty, but how do you know it wasn’t a right winger playing a lefty?

  90. 90.

    eclare

    September 2, 2021 at 9:10 am

    @SFAW:  I heard that too.  Some woman from CO on NPR.  I was enraged, still am.

    Hope she’s happy.

  91. 91.

    Woodrow/asim

    September 2, 2021 at 9:11 am

    Hey gang — unless you’re comfortable with VPNs and masking yourself online, I would not recommend mucking around with that shit abortion-hunting website.

    If the private entity that hosts that site decides to get harsh and go after what they would call malicious posts (likely with Texas’ help), the fact is that a lot of VPNs do keep logs for longer than they really should, and thus could have those logs pulled into court. That’s outside of VPNs that just don’t do a great job of masking you, to begin with.

    That’s why I posted the links to the people fighting this on the ground, y’all. It’s not as fun to work with them, but like when we won Georgia, that kind of money and support isn’t flashy or feel-good — it’s just getting the good work done. :)

  92. 92.

    debbie

    September 2, 2021 at 9:11 am

    Unsurprisingly, Glenn  Beck is celebrating. Click. It gave me an idea. I want to figure out how to get the names of RWNJ radio hosts’ daughters and file many, many reports at that website about their abortion-loving ways.

  93. 93.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 9:11 am

    @Kay: david brock knows

    i still don’t fully trust the guy, but props for walking away

  94. 94.

    Denali

    September 2, 2021 at 9:12 am

    @Starfish,

     

    Thanks  from an old lady. Sounds too techy for me to pay to join a private network.

  95. 95.

    Denali

    September 2, 2021 at 9:12 am

  96. 96.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 2, 2021 at 9:12 am

    @debbie: I think I heard that the law indemnifies false accusers. So feel free to put Ted Cruz’s name on the hotline.

  97. 97.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 9:12 am

    @Denali: chinesse internet

  98. 98.

    Soprano2

    September 2, 2021 at 9:14 am

    @Ohio Mom: That is a great tornado primer. I do the same thing, mostly ignore the warnings unless they’re really close to where I am at the time.

  99. 99.

    Starfish

    September 2, 2021 at 9:16 am

    @Denali:

    BREAKING: An anti-abortion anonymous tipline in Texas is being spammed by TikTokers sending Shrek memes.
    — No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) September 2, 2021

    The kids these days really are a lot of fun.

  100. 100.

    debbie

    September 2, 2021 at 9:17 am

    @Starfish:

    The kids are alright!

  101. 101.

    252man

    September 2, 2021 at 9:18 am

    Here’s an idea for the women of Texas as a means of protest: tell their male SO that their sex life is suspended until this law is repealed.

  102. 102.

    gene108

    September 2, 2021 at 9:18 am

    @Kay:

    The bounties are only the official money behind it. Right wing donors can pump it full of money and pay the deputized- citizen pregnancy investigators and fund the litigation. They can bury people. They won’t have a chance.

    Yes, this is exactly what is going to happen. The people filing civil suits under the Texas law will not be a nosy neighbor, but well funded forced birth activists who will strategically target providers and people to make getting an abortion impossible in Texas.

    They won’t go after the upper middle class white family seeking an abortion or Christian kooks like them (at first, at least), but target it so most people won’t directly feel the impact until abortion becomes impossible.

    What I wonder is when are they going to start going after pharmacies and pharmacists for selling morning after pills, and other types of birth control, because these forced birth fanatics have a very broad view of what constitutes “abortion”.

  103. 103.

    Suzanne

    September 2, 2021 at 9:22 am

    @rikyrah: More than any of these police murders (and I will note that they are all devastating and painful), Elijah McClain’s murder is the one that just…. just tears me up.

  104. 104.

    gene108

    September 2, 2021 at 9:23 am

    @rikyrah:

    NEW: Texas law could flip the script on abortion politics.

    Republicans have benefited from a “safe space” to stir up their base against abortion with little electoral downside as Roe was secure.

    I wonder what the level of news saturation is required to get our side motivated?

    We can get our voters motivated and beat Republicans.

    Republican attempts to kill the ACA helped motivate the hell out of voters in 2018 to defeat Republicans.

  105. 105.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 9:27 am

    Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias
    Always interesting to see which stories are seen as equally newsworthy as “new copies of old emails found on a laptop.” Virtually nothing meets that high bar.

  106. 106.

    VOR

    September 2, 2021 at 9:32 am

    @Ohio Mom: In the old days they would declare a Warning for the entire county. I live at the south end of a county where the north end is 45-50 miles away. These days tornado warnings can be much more selective.

    You have to be careful with tornados. They can spin up fast and a single storm can spawn multiple tornados. They can move fast – per Wikipedia the record is 73 MPH. They can travel distances – the record is the Tri-State Tornado of 1925 which traveled from Missouri through Illinois and into Indiana with a 219 mile track.

    A tornado passed overhead when I was a kid, I’ll never forget it. If we get a tornado warning nearby, I grab the pets and call everyone into the basement to wait it out.

  107. 107.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 9:32 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: MattY has been on point lately.

  108. 108.

    Peale

    September 2, 2021 at 9:33 am

    @gene108: My recommendation is for us to go after those upper middle class white people. There’s no reason the poor need to bear the brunt of it. Make pregnancy really expensive for them. They can bear the cost. We talk about how Texas is so bad that women already have to drive 100s of miles to find an abortion provider. Go after those doctors with upper middle class clients and make those people have to go out of state to get any OB care because their doctor can’t see patients right now. Sorry, but the quicker the upper middle class has to suffer for voting for this crap the more likely it is going to end.

    We’re dealing with people who fundamentally believe that birth is a miracle and at any time God can change His mind and start that heartbeat again. I don’t think we should just sit by and try and send shrek photos to hotlines and should not make this so that only poor women feel the brunt of this madness. If it mainly falls on the poor it will never be changed

    The upper middle class should probably leave the state whenever they are pregnant anyway. California has 4 pregnancy related deaths per 100K. Texas is already at 32. Its much better to leave for 9 months. Not just for abortion – but for all pregnancy care. Make them do it.

  109. 109.

    WaterGirl

    September 2, 2021 at 9:35 am

    @SFAW: Thanks for the laugh!

  110. 110.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 9:35 am

    @252man: that will just lead to a rash of trevors bauer & deshauns watson

  111. 111.

    Feathers

    September 2, 2021 at 9:35 am

    Apparently, only one suit per abortion is allowed, so one strategy is to arrange for a friendly suit, settle it, pay them the $10,000 which they then return to you. Does anyone know if you could do this after someone hostile sues you?
    h/t Tweet from Courtney Milan

  112. 112.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 9:37 am

    @gene108: i think the plan there is to get more liberty school of pharmacy grads in the druggists stores & having them conscientiously object to dispensing abortifacients

  113. 113.

    Soprano2

    September 2, 2021 at 9:38 am

    Also, that stuff the court said about this not being about Roe is complete bullshit, and I wish all the reporting would recognize that. If this had been a law affecting some conservative’s religious liberty, they would have found a way to block it, of that I am certain.

  114. 114.

    debbie

    September 2, 2021 at 9:39 am

    @gene108:

    It feels to me like this time, they really overreached, and it will come back to bite them in the collective asses. Fingers crossed.

  115. 115.

    hueyplong

    September 2, 2021 at 9:39 am

    @Feathers: My knee-jerk reaction to that suggestion is to like it.

    My worry is that the Texas law (or court procedures), which I haven’t read, might call for consolidation of any cases so that a Texas judge will have any shenanigans in front of him and perhaps the ability to stop them (such as any settlement requiring court approval, etc.).

  116. 116.

    VOR

    September 2, 2021 at 9:42 am

    @VOR: I always liked the clip from the movie Twister where they are talking about tornado ratings. An F4? “That’ll relocate your house pretty efficiently”. What’s an F5 like? “The finger of God”.

    http://youtu.be/525xrI009qQ

  117. 117.

    RaflW

    September 2, 2021 at 9:46 am

    David Brooks, not content with just blathering at the NYT, has managed to get a front page item at The Atlantic. I’m a subscriber, and they publish quite a bit that is worthwhile, but this? Garbage, and absolutely classic Brooks.

    How the Bobos Broke America
    The creative class was supposed to foster progressive values and economic growth. Instead we got resentment, alienation, and endless political dysfunction.
    David Brooks

    Nevermind that he manages to self-reference in the title (and, does anyone call creative types ‘bobos’ except him? What?).

    I won’t click thru to read his tripe. I’m sure it’s a hot commodity but I won’t add myself to his page hits. Just the blurb is enough to know — other cons are working this, uhh, con — that of course liberals in sneering, progressive cities are at fault for small town conservative anger & the Republican refusal to govern collaboratively at all.

    What an absolute load of hooey. Next up from David: Nerds make bullies punch them? (Now that I think of it, I do want to punch him!*)

    *Except I don’t. I hate violence, but the feeling of revulsion I have for him makes me want to swing a roundhouse — if I even had the vaguest idea how!

  118. 118.

    glory b

    September 2, 2021 at 9:48 am

    @SFAW: I heard it several times too, on Sirius radio, on several of the shows on the progressive station.

    I’ll take this time to point out that while I like Sirius, it burns me that the right wing station is still called the “Patriot Channel,” the left leaning one is called “Sirius Progressive.”

  119. 119.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 9:50 am

    @RaflW: 

    The creative class was supposed to foster progressive values and economic growth. Instead we got resentment, alienation, and endless political dysfunction.

    We get progressive values and economic growth where we are allowed to govern.

    Just another chapter in the “only our side has agency” scam.

  120. 120.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    September 2, 2021 at 9:50 am

     

    @SFAW: That person is smugly telling everyone “I told you so. Next time, support the TRUE progressive”.

  121. 121.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 9:50 am

    @glory b:

    Is that Sirius doing that or the show’s producers?

  122. 122.

    NotMax

    September 2, 2021 at 9:52 am

    @debbie

    “Texas Republicans butcher perennial fundraising cash cow.”

    //

  123. 123.

    JPL

    September 2, 2021 at 9:52 am

    The best of twitter

    Madeleine L’Engle
    @MadeleineLEngle
    Sep 1
    “Stay angry, little Meg,” Mrs Whatsit whispered. “You will need all your anger now.” A Wrinkle in Time

  124. 124.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 2, 2021 at 9:52 am

    There have been a lot of ageist attacks on President Biden, including from the left. But I sincerely wonder if a younger president, more concerned about his/her legacy, would have had the courage to make the difficult decision he did. I hope this leads people to be less ageist.

    I thinks it’s more Biden being such an Washington old timer saw the once in a lifetime opportunity Trump gave him to get the US out of Afghanistan. What Biden did was High Broderism Judo were he turned “Both Side do it” against the press.

  125. 125.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    September 2, 2021 at 9:53 am

    @RaflW:

    Would love to give that guy a swirlie. Some people just don’t get enough peer-based social correction in high school.

  126. 126.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 9:53 am

    @RaflW: sometimes pundits remind me of the aging actor/singer/comedian who is booked on a chat show or podcast because they have a memoir coming out, or just out of pity, and they hit their old catch phrase or mention their mid-level hit from X number of years ago and kind of sadly wait for applause, and sometimes the host picks up on it and gets a sad pity-clap going, and sometimes not.
    When all anybody wants to hear is “Did you really sleep with Elvis/Cher/Milton Berle?”

  127. 127.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    September 2, 2021 at 9:55 am

    @Baud:

    Clearly, this will all be fixed when RWNJs are shamed by nonviolent parades, nonviolent protests, songs, drum circles and giant puppets. The imagery will cause them to change course.

  128. 128.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 9:55 am

    @glory b:

    I’ll take this time to point out that while I like Sirius, it burns me that the right wing station is still called the “Patriot Channel,” the left leaning one is called “Sirius Progressive.”

    Used to drive me crazy, do they still even have the “Progressive” channel? I thought they folded it into something else. I pretty much quit listening to the channel when they fired Frank Conniff from the Fugelsang show, which I gather was cancelled a while after.

  129. 129.

    RaflW

    September 2, 2021 at 9:56 am

    @glory b: I’m a sirius subscriber. Your post got me to have a look around and I think I’m going to write to them to question this obvious bias.

    If your question relates to a specific SiriusXM department or you have suggestions please email [email protected]

    I may also fill out a comment on the Investor Relations page, a tactic I use when I find it difficult to track down a better email than (basically) ‘[email protected]’.

  130. 130.

    NotMax

    September 2, 2021 at 9:57 am

    @RaflW

    does anyone call creative types ‘bobos’ except him?

    Nope. That whole bit went over like a flotilla of lead balloons on Jupiter.

  131. 131.

    Cameron

    September 2, 2021 at 9:59 am

    @NotMax: “Bobos?” What is he, two years old?

  132. 132.

    germy

    September 2, 2021 at 10:00 am

    WASHINGTON (AP) – House Democrats have promoted Republican Rep. Liz Cheney to vice chairwoman of a committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, placing her in a leadership spot on the panel as some members of the GOP caucus are threatening to oust her for participating.

  133. 133.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    September 2, 2021 at 10:01 am

    @Peale:

    Pregnancy is about to be super expensive in Texas. How are insurance policies for obstetricians or gynecologists going to be underwritten? You realize that now each miscarriage is going to result in some asshole trolling through medical records looking for abortions, and the quack experts will start saying “well, this one doesn’t look like an abortion, but I’ll serve as your expert for a malpractice claim”.

    That way, they get to pretend to NOT be abortion trolls, but instead purveyors of a valuable and needed public service.

  134. 134.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 10:01 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    I don’t care that much about what types of protests or other direct actions people take.  What I detest are when people advocate for those actions in lieu of voting for Democrats, and when they advocate for others to do the same.  Especially so when the issue is one where the two parties have clear differences like abortion rights.

    I just have very little interest in people who refuse to take the most important step to help themselves and others and then talk about how victimized they are.

  135. 135.

    Geminid

    September 2, 2021 at 10:01 am

    I saw that the Senate will vote on Ken Salazar for Ambassador to Mexico today. A former Colorado Attorney General and U.S. Senator for that state, Salazar is well qualified for this important job. He was also Secretary of the Interior in the Obama administration.

    Ken Salazar is a native of Alamosa, Colorado. His brother John represented the surrounding 3rd Dostrict in Congess 2004-2011. John Salazar lost a close election in 2010 to Scott Tipton, who lost his Republican primary last year to Lauren Boebert.

  136. 136.

    WaterGirl

    September 2, 2021 at 10:01 am

    @germy: I wonder what that’s about.  Seems like a dangerous move to me, so there has to be a good reason for Nancy SMASH to do that.

  137. 137.

    NotMax

    September 2, 2021 at 10:02 am

    @Cameron

    From the title of his book from years ago, which made less of a splash than pissing into the ocean.

  138. 138.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 10:02 am

    @RaflW: to be fair… david brooks definitely forced the bullies’s hands on the middle school playground

  139. 139.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 10:03 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: except he is on record as anti-surge in 2009

  140. 140.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 10:05 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: what is the venn diagram of people who have banged all three?

  141. 141.

    gene108

    September 2, 2021 at 10:07 am

    @Peale:

    It’s a nice sentiment to go after OB’s with primarily upper middle class white women clients. The problem is a civil suite for at least $10k will involve more than filing something in small claims court. A normal person will need a lawyer to navigate the court system. I doubt many lawyers will be willing to take this sort of case up pro bono. People trying to do this will need money to sustain a lawsuit for however many months or years it will take with the inevitable motions that come with this kind of lawsuit.

    The forced birth crowd will have unlimited billionaire bucks behind them to sue anyone they want, and pay handsomely their legal counsel.

    It’s hard to fight against an enemy, where money is no object for them, but we do and somehow succeed from time to time.

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Sen. Whitehouse has been on the confluence of dark money backing Republican court appointments for years. I wish other Senators would take it as seriously.

    I think if Congress tightened up the conflict of interest rules, governing when a judge must recuse themselves from hearing a case, and have it cover the SCOTUS as well, some level of abuse these Republican fanatics undertake might get curtailed.

  142. 142.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 10:08 am

    @WaterGirl: Window-dressing, unless she has some kind of veto

    ETA: Pelosi is counting on, as Nixon might have said, her ability to hate. I think it’s a good bet.

  143. 143.

    NotMax

    September 2, 2021 at 10:09 am

    @MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    “Who is Shelley Winters, Alex?”

    //

  144. 144.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 10:11 am

    @NotMax: dammit, I was trying to think of the best career time-frame

    you win

  145. 145.

    germy

    September 2, 2021 at 10:11 am

    @WaterGirl:

    “Tired of Republican Daddies?  Meet your new Republican Mommy!”

  146. 146.

    ArchTeryx

    September 2, 2021 at 10:13 am

    @JMG: That’s a dangerous game to play. Some tornadoes do not announce themselves like that before wrecking shit. Read the reports of the Tri-State Tornado, one of the largest and most powerful tornadoes in recorded history. Most had no clue what they were seeing and hearing was a tornado until it steamrollered them. Even people out on open fields with an unobstructed view did not know until it literally tore them to pieces. The accounts will make your blood run cold.

    The roar is often not even audible until the tornado is right on top of you. You’ll hear it, all right – seconds before impact.  Just like with the TST.

    Not convinced? There’s another video out there of a man filming an EF-4 tornado approaching his house, right up until the moment of impact. He survived – barely. His wife and neighbor, taking shelter when the tornado hit, did not.

  147. 147.

    Betty Cracker

    September 2, 2021 at 10:19 am

    Re: Darmofal’s tweet in the OP: Biden has definitely been a mixed bag on foreign policy during his career. IMO, he was mostly and sometimes catastrophically wrong as a senator. That he evolved as VP and now as POTUS is to his great credit, IMO.

    I’m not sure I’d chalk it up to lack of concern with a legacy due to age. If I had to guess, I’d wager Biden’s concern with his legacy is above average. He recognized that Afghanistan was an unwinnable shit-show and resolved not to kick the can down the road, perhaps partly because he really couldn’t after Trump’s fuckery anyway.

    That was courageous, and I think history will record that — assuming the country remains a going concern as a democracy by arresting the current slide into right wing authoritarianism. THAT question will determine Biden’s legacy.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 10:21 am

    “Mark Joseph Stern @mjs_DC

    The pro-life movement’s pivot from “we want to protect babies AND mothers” to “if you dare get an abortion we will bankrupt everyone you love” was remarkably quick.”

    Must not know any of them personally. They are sanctiminious scolds who will absolutely be on board for monitoring every pregnancy and they’re thrilled they now have a huge hammer to hit people with. Never forget the treacly, soft focus mommy and baby stuff came with mandatory vaginal probes. Forget keeping them out of your bedroom. They’ll be in the examining room. Well, them and their huge legal team, now.

  149. 149.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 10:24 am

    @Kay:

    Someone should create memes of Sam Alito photoshopped into women’s ob/gyn visits.

  150. 150.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 10:27 am

    @germy: could definitly see marjorie taylor-greene moonlighting in stepmomporn

    ted cruz can give her a referral

  151. 151.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 10:28 am

    @Kay: today we are all transvaginal ultrasounds

  152. 152.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 10:29 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: ann-margaret might work

  153. 153.

    germy

    September 2, 2021 at 10:29 am

    ⅓ of this country lives in an alternate informational bubble sustained by some of the wealthiest people on the planet https://t.co/GwLEAtZ0eQ

    — Rev. Pill-Poppy (@poppy_haze) September 1, 2021

  154. 154.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 2, 2021 at 10:32 am

    Shorter political media and blog betters, Heads Rs win, Tails Ds lose.

  155. 155.

    James E Powell

    September 2, 2021 at 10:33 am

    @SFAW:

    Collins may lift an eyebrow at the brazen & crude manners of Trump & his slavish followers, but she agrees with their policies. So do the majority of Maine voters.

    I don’t know a damn thing about Maine or its politics, I’m just reading the box scores. Is it all about the whiteness?

  156. 156.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 10:37 am

    @James E Powell: Apparently, a big factor was that her (white female) opponent wasn’t a Maine “native.”

  157. 157.

    WaterGirl

    September 2, 2021 at 10:38 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    unless she has some kind of veto

    That’s the kind of thing I am worried about.

  158. 158.

    cain

    September 2, 2021 at 10:38 am

    @Kay: ​
     
    It will be any yahoo looking to cash in – and conservative men and women will be as much targets as anyone else. These “moral hunters” won’t give a shit – everyone will have to watch their backs.
    Never mind that even women visiting are also at risk – businesswomen, ceos, attorneys – everyone with any history could be fucked.

  159. 159.

    Chief Oshkosh

    September 2, 2021 at 10:38 am

    @Kay: Yep. Having had to spend time with various low-life forms of MIC “contractors” over the years (sadly, I’ve never met higher-quality contractors; I’m sure they exist), that is EXACTLY what is going to happen. There are entire worlds created around scamming government programs, and it ain’t poor people doing it. Every single one of these people were, at best, sociopaths. They will happily ruin lives, even kill you and your family, if it means one more dollar in their bank account. This Texas program is perfect for them.

  160. 160.

    NotMax

    September 2, 2021 at 10:39 am

    @MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    Powdered and perfumed radiant as Lady Booby.

    ;)

  161. 161.

    Chief Oshkosh

    September 2, 2021 at 10:40 am

    @rikyrah: I’d love it to happen, but how does that happen due to this new Texas law?

  162. 162.

    cain

    September 2, 2021 at 10:43 am

    @John S.: ​
     
    GenX checking in – same here – I instantly disliked Reagan. Frankly, nobody honestly I felt in high school was paying much attention to the man from what I can tell. We never really talked politics back then.

  163. 163.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 10:43 am

    @James E Powell:

    Collins may lift an eyebrow at the brazen & crude manners of Trump & his slavish followers, but she agrees with their policies. So do the majority of Maine voters.

    Paul LePage would suggest there are a lot of ME voters who like trump and his politics, but not a majority– PLP needed spoiler candidates both times, IIRC. And Biden beat trump state-wide by the just about the same margin as Collins beat Gideon.
    I think besides Collins being a very talented fraud (I myself underestimated her for years), and a romantic notion about “old fashioned New England Republicans” that spreads far beyond NE or ME, Collins benefited from the advantage of incumbency and just habit. A lot like Lieberman in ’06

  164. 164.

    James E Powell

    September 2, 2021 at 10:43 am

    @Baud:

    Isn’t nativism at least a relative of white supremacy? And I know her opponent was a white female. I meant that Republicans are very much the White People’s Party and Maine is a very white state

    Is it because Maine doesn’t have a big city?

  165. 165.

    germy

    September 2, 2021 at 10:45 am

    Candace Owens says Suzanna from the company that refused her a Covid test is racist.

    She also called the CEO of American Booksellers Assoc racist for criticizing her book.

    Yet, this same boot licking ? testified before Congress that anti Black racism doesn’t exist in America. pic.twitter.com/Jwo6hwDPtA

    — Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) September 2, 2021

  166. 166.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 10:45 am

    @James E Powell: Maine is very rural.  But as Jim mentions, they voted for Biden (and Hillary)* and they now have a white female Dem governor.

    *Maine splits their electoral votes, and the redder district gave one vote to Trump in both elections.

  167. 167.

    germy

    September 2, 2021 at 10:46 am

    Candace Owens: “Racism is dead and COVID is a hoax.”

    Also Candace Owens: “I was denied a COVID test because I’m black.”

    — Sam Stitches (@SammiStitches) September 2, 2021

  168. 168.

    cain

    September 2, 2021 at 10:46 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: ​
     
    When will Engels call for the airlifting of women and children from Texas? Or does his ilk only give a shit about women in Afghanistan?

  169. 169.

    snoey

    September 2, 2021 at 10:47 am

    @WaterGirl: ​
     

    There was the Wapo anti-coup op-ed signed by all former defense secretaries. It was later reported that Dick Cheney was the organizer.
    Occam’s razor says that the Cheneys, however bad their other politics, are actual patriotic Americans and know more about the coup than they can say.

  170. 170.

    jnfr

    September 2, 2021 at 10:48 am

    @rikyrah: ​
    He was clearly such a sweet kid and his death was a disgrace. I hope these cops get a severe sentence.

  171. 171.

    ArchTeryx

    September 2, 2021 at 10:49 am

    @Baud: And that’s a MASSIVE issue in Maine.  They’re extremely snooty about native vs. outsider, like a fair amount of Old New England. (Vermont is similar but are not as bone-deep nasty about it).

    Anecdata: My mother wanted to move from Michigan to Maine once.  She knew a native there and asked how many years it’d take before they accepted her as one of the natives. Her friend just laughed and said, “Dearie… try three generations.”

    That’s what Sara Gideon was fighting against. Between that and the power of incumbency, it was a losing fight from the beginning. The moment Collins pulled that card on her, the hand and election were lost.

  172. 172.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 10:50 am

    @James E Powell:

    As I understand it, Maine is more-or-less divided into two areas: Southern Maine (Portland — the REAL Portland, not like that Left Coast pretender), which is fairly liberal, and northern Maine, which is redneck-y. Northern Maine was how Paul LePage won two terms (with an assist from the liberal Elliot Cutler splitting the Dem vote). She was born in Caribou, and I think — MomSense can correct me — that she lives in/near Millinocket. Both those towns are way north.

    As Baud noted, the “Sara Gideon weren’t born here” was, apparently, a thing during the 2020 election. Did it affect the result? Don’t know for certain, but seems reasonable.

    ETA: ArchTeryx beat me to it, and has a better summation.

  173. 173.

    cain

    September 2, 2021 at 10:51 am

    The twitter is telling me I should be angry at Merrick Garland – and they have a new hero, Sally Yates. I’m really kind of tired of all this projection on singular “heroes”. I remember the whole thing around Mueller – and of course that turned into a dud.

    Garland made his fame on going after organized crime if I recall. I don’t know what is required right now to go after Trump but as long as Biden has confidence in Garland – I’m willing to keep giving support. Twitter is filled with rage right now – and is being incoherent.

  174. 174.

    Captain C

    September 2, 2021 at 10:52 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Shot:

    “I won’t be blackmailed into supporting a neoliberal corporate shill like Hillary just because of the Supreme Court. My vote is MINE and must be earned!”

    Chaser:

    Why won’t you doooooooo something??!?!?

  175. 175.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 10:52 am

    @SFAW:

    Northern Maine has a conservaDem rep though.  Not as hopeless as some districts.

  176. 176.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 2, 2021 at 10:53 am

    @cain: I never liked Reagan, but in high school that put me very much in the minority–most of my classmates loved him. This was in western Fairfax County, VA, which was then a deeply Republican area though it is not any more. The experience was formative for me, gave me an instinctual feeling that most people will always disagree with me, possibly with great agitation, about politics so I need to watch my step.

  177. 177.

    RaflW

    September 2, 2021 at 10:54 am

    @rikyrah: Susan Collins has run a decades-long scam. She has lied to her constituents, and I’d bet there are moderates around the country who’ve funded her because they believed her lies about being a ‘pro-choice Republican.’

    It was all bullshit. All of it. She’s a morally depraved as her fellow caucus members. She really is no better. Nope.

  178. 178.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 10:54 am

    @cain:

    One thing the Republicans have on us is that they never lose focus on who their true enemies are.

  179. 179.

    SFAW

    September 2, 2021 at 10:54 am

    @germy:

    What Bishop Swan ignores is that only liberal racism exists; racism by “conservatives”/RWMFs doesn’t.

  180. 180.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 10:54 am

    @James E Powell: today is the day paul le page became governor

  181. 181.

    MisterForkbeard

    September 2, 2021 at 10:56 am

    @Captain C: I’ve seen some of that on facebook. When Biden and Harris both made statements about how terrible the Texas law was and how the Democratic Party has to fight it, I see responses like “Why don’t you do something about it? Dems always whine about this and then let it happen”

    Fucktards – the time to do something about it was 5 years ago. Now we’re locked into a generation or more of this bullshit.

  182. 182.

    James E Powell

    September 2, 2021 at 10:57 am

    @cain:

    As I mentioned yesterday, I picked a good day to deactivate my twitter.

    Our current and everlasting problem generally is that our people do not vote at the same rate, do not vote a straight ticket, and do not vote the whole ballot. The other side’s voters do.

    Our current and everlasting problem on the issue of abortion rights is that the people who want to make it a crime vote every time and consider abortion the one & only issue. In contrast, pro-choice voters will vote Republican for reasons. Abortion rights are a consideration, but nowhere near the top of the list.

  183. 183.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 10:57 am

    @cain: i wonder if the nychc band reagan youth grew up to be post-reaganite maga boosters

  184. 184.

    RaflW

    September 2, 2021 at 10:58 am

    @cain:

    I’m really kind of tired of all this projection on singular “heroes”.

    Amen! For decades the Democratic party has relied on a handful of heroes to keep our problems at bay. When we should have been building power the way the GOP has (I mean the power part, not the lying and bad faith bullshitting).

    As a tweet pointed out yesterday (roughly, from memory): Run for Something raised $2.5M in the last cycle and helped elect 250+ candidates. Amy McGrath raised $88M and lost by over 19 points.

    We don’t invest where it can matter. That has to change, now.

    (ftr I donated directly to RFS and did a couple of rounds of funding candidates they highlighted for 2020. And I will again. Join me!)

  185. 185.

    Ksmiami

    September 2, 2021 at 10:59 am

    @Kay: they deserve to be 2nd Amendmented. They come anywhere near me and my girls, they will take a dirt nap.

  186. 186.

    Woodrow/asim

    September 2, 2021 at 10:59 am

    @cain: Twitter is filled with rage right now – and is being incoherent.

    There are many people who have more interest in vengeance — even blind vengeance — over anything like justice.

    Because vengeance/lashing out feels “good,” it also sells well — see “owning the ‘libs’.” It’s a vicious cycle, both online and off.

  187. 187.

    NotMax

    September 2, 2021 at 11:00 am

    @cain

    It won’t be via Virgin Airlines.

    (rimshot) //

  188. 188.

    Ksmiami

    September 2, 2021 at 11:01 am

    @RaflW: there are no good Republicans. Proceed from there

  189. 189.

    Captain C

    September 2, 2021 at 11:01 am

    @RaflW:

    What an absolute load of hooey. Next up from David: Nerds make bullies punch them?

    I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Brooks has a physical humiliation fetish, and that he projects it onto everyone else.

  190. 190.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 2, 2021 at 11:01 am

    @cain: The American left has a loud contingent who are just itching to turn on their own allies to demonstrate moral superiority. It’s not all the extreme left, some of it is centrists who desperately want to be “bipartisan” for some reason, and the two camps both tend to see the Democratic Party as hostage to the other camp.

    I think part of that is not bad–it’s that we actually do care about substantive issues rather than just about winning one for the team. When the team isn’t doing exactly what you want on all the issues, that’s upsetting. But we can lose sight of the fact that winning one for the team is the only path to getting progress on issues.

  191. 191.

    Just Chuck

    September 2, 2021 at 11:01 am

    @SFAW:

    If some non-LEO person is trying to detain me, and I’m in fear of my life, can I respond as if I’m in fear of my life?

    Only if they’re darker than you.

  192. 192.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 11:01 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: while the democrat congressional slate still spans from cori bush to kyrsten sinema, i ask, where are the gqp’s moderates

    i remember when jiltin joe liebermann’s fellow nutmegger chris shays was in gqp house leadership, but now isn’t scalise in that role

    the democrat party is still a melange, & it’s the gqp that is exclusionary (contra the lamestream media)

  193. 193.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 11:01 am

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Too many people have gotten in the habit of outsourcing  their citizenship responsibilities to officials.

  194. 194.

    Ksmiami

    September 2, 2021 at 11:03 am

    @Woodrow/asim: people are hurt and enraged. It’s not incoherence- most of the comments are women telling men that this was wholly predictable but they called us hysterical etc… besides we can channel this into a push forward if it’s harnessed

  195. 195.

    Yarrow

    September 2, 2021 at 11:03 am

    Just an FYI, Texas state elections are in 2022. Governor, Attorney General, state Representatives, etc. As awful as this new law is, now is the time to start working to elect people who can overturn it. If you want to change things, change who’s in charge in Texas.

  196. 196.

    Geminid

    September 2, 2021 at 11:04 am

    @MomSense: There are plenty of good Democratic Gen X politicians in Congress. House Caucas Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (NY) is one. Veronica Escobar (TX), Chrissy Houlihan (PA), Ted Lieu (CA), and Elaine Luria (VA) are four more, and there are many others. Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke are of Generation X.

    We’ll be seeing a lot of Elaine Luria (VA-2) in the Select Committee on 1/6 hearings.

  197. 197.

    Just Chuck

    September 2, 2021 at 11:05 am

    @RaflW: “The Creative Class” is always the first to get rounded up in the killing fields.  Brooks is just another Nazi with a polite tone.

  198. 198.

    Immanentize

    September 2, 2021 at 11:06 am

    @WaterGirl: Liz Cheney = bi-partisan subpoena approval. The committee rules require subpoenas to be issued by “the agreement of the chair and vice chair.” And if they disagree, by vote of a majority of the committee.  All this bruhaha about the validity of subpoenas for phone records (extremely common and mundane) will be solved by adding a republican vice chair

  199. 199.

    KSinMA

    September 2, 2021 at 11:07 am

    @Denali: Flooding the hotline with bogus reports is a great idea.

  200. 200.

    RaflW

    September 2, 2021 at 11:07 am

    @Betty Cracker: I mean, can you imagine if Kamala Harris had to pull the plug on Afghanistan? As in, the racist garbage howler monkeys would be so far out of control we’d be under martial law in a matter of days.

    I am not saying that she doesn’t have the chops. I’m saying that Biden recognizes that he has a reservoir of goodwill in the nation that includes whatever slim wedge of R voters who aren’t guzzling the Qoolaide, plus most all Dems and indies.

    Ms. Harris is a fine Dem and a good leader, but she – like Barack – is subject to all the white supremacy toxicity that he gets to skate around. He used that to end our wasteful, GOP-invented trashfire in Afg.

  201. 201.

    Immanentize

    September 2, 2021 at 11:10 am

    @Kay: Its like gay people were before AIDS revealed so many — the scolds know many women who have had abortions. They are just not out of the closet to those asses.

  202. 202.

    RaflW

    September 2, 2021 at 11:12 am

    @KSinMA: Is there a way to take that up a notch? It grosses me out to be suggesting this, but why not sue pregnant conservatives in Texas? If they travel to an abortion-on-demand state, accuse them of secretly visiting a clinic on a scouting trip.

    What are the penalties for filing a false accusation? I’m gonna guess nothing, because the R-dominated TX lege wouldn’t want their informant corps to pay damages for being wrong.

    (Seriously, this makes my stomach clench. The idea of doing this is gross. But there probably has to be drastic blowback to conservative women and their husbands before maybe, maybe they reconsider.

    Also, as @Immanentize observes, conservative women do get abortions. Go after that. (Damn this just is so awful. I don’t want to harass women who make legal choices about their own care. But the hypocrisy potential is life-threatening for the women who can’t afford a ‘spa weekend’ out of state).

  203. 203.

    Immanentize

    September 2, 2021 at 11:18 am

    @cain: Gen X song of songs:

    People starving in India
    Fighting in Baghdad
    We don’t care
    We’d ask her ourselves
    But it’s none of our business, besides
    We don’t dare

    Who does Lisa
    Who does Lisa
    Who does Lisa like?

    Who Does Lisa Like

    — the image of the Firestone parking lot is just perfect.

  204. 204.

    WaterGirl

    September 2, 2021 at 11:19 am

    @Baud:

    One thing the Republicans have on us is that they never lose focus on who their true enemies are.

    Us?

  205. 205.

    Geminid

    September 2, 2021 at 11:19 am

    @Baud: Jared Golden (ME-2) was one of a few Democrats to win in a district carried by trump. Geographically, the 2nd Maine is the largest Congressional district east of the Mississippi.

  206. 206.

    Immanentize

    September 2, 2021 at 11:19 am

    @RaflW: Personally, I’m going to talk about the children — kids who are raped, or forced into incest, or get pregnant before they really know what a regular period is. 13 years olds forced to have babies. There is no rape or incest exception in the law.

  207. 207.

    Chris Johnson

    September 2, 2021 at 11:20 am

    This is all about vigilantism. Which is a tool of straight up fascism: it’s here, this is the time to pick sides and understand what this is about.

    Which does NOT mean the end goal is to set up opposite fascism and abdicate any notion of rule of law. Stuff like the progress on the 1/6 thing, where they’re now going to look into the phone records of seditionists, is important: it’s possible to refuse fascism.

    Lots of the ‘look, dems did not defend Roe v Wade and don’t deserve your support, we must fight in the streets now’ is simply enemy action. Russia drives it, indirectly and directly (Twitter? Directly. Delete your twitter and facebook)

    The reason is, Russia hopes that if we are obliterated by Covid and descend into open guerrilla warfare on each other, we’ll collapse and they will be in a fine position to benefit from global temperate zone shift and their oil reserves.

    This is completely stupid of them and I’m happy to see they’re getting clobbered by covid themselves. But this is why they are doing it, and there’s always an underlying motivation of causing the USA to have LESS law, MORE conflict, MORE domestic terrorism, MORE fascism and vigilantes.

    It’s not because it’s supposed to be good for us: if the right started to seize all power, Russia would immediately turn around and start funding Democrats and try to make us as violent as possible. Right now, the Republicans and Qanons (itself a Russian operation) are in danger of being squished by law (as they are criminals) so Russia will do everything it can to rush us into the most extreme conflict they can manufacture, to the delight of the right-wingers who want to do that.

    It’s not to make the right-wingers ultimately win. It’s a trap, designed to make us fight them more unlawfully. If they did win serious power Russia would be helping us as long as we meant to fight the right-wingers in a terroristic way.

    To not play this game, use rule of law and hold people accountable. This is not a country of vigilantes and anybody who tries to make it be that, are in the wrong.

  208. 208.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 11:22 am

    @Immanentize:

    Ugh, I was at a legal dinner with a bunch of them and they were talking about the fake health clinic they donate to. Okay, so the women “earn” baby stuff- things like cribs and pack and plays and car seats. They “earn” it by showing up for religious indoctrination sessions and Right wing “parenting classes”

    I was sitting there like seething. My daughter, who didn’t used to be political but is a liberal voter, described it this way to me “why are they always talking about us?” She thinks being the subject of their moralizing, self- aggrandizing “charity” work is itself intrusive and controlling. She sees herself as in the broad group of people they discuss.

  209. 209.

    Llelldorin

    September 2, 2021 at 11:25 am

    @Cameron: Short for “bourgeois bohemian” — his ludicrously cutesy name for wealthy liberals. Like many “soft conservative” types, he basically took his own attitudes and biases and repackaged them as though he’d discovered something interesting.

  210. 210.

    catclub

    September 2, 2021 at 11:25 am

    @MJS: ​
     

    There has to be some fuckery available to us that can gum up this monstrosity of a law.

    The first website they set up for snitching has already been trolled.

  211. 211.

    RaflW

    September 2, 2021 at 11:26 am

    @Immanentize: Dang. That does seem like an important leverage point.

    I also take Chris @207’s point.

    On reflection, I don’t mean to advocate that people sue rando Christian women. But in the way that fundie pastors that rail against LGBTQ people but cruise grindr sometimes get their public due, if there’s a strategic public figure who potentially runs afoul of this TX law, expose them.

  212. 212.

    RaflW

    September 2, 2021 at 11:30 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    …all anybody wants to hear is “Did you really sleep with Elvis/Cher/Milton Berle?”

    My g-d that’s a three-way brewed in Satans cauldron. :0

  213. 213.

    catclub

    September 2, 2021 at 11:30 am

    @RaflW: ​
     

    Except I don’t. I hate violence, but the feeling of revulsion I have for him makes me want to swing a roundhouse — if I even had the vaguest idea how!

    Just remember that in a bar fight, virtually everyone starts with a right.
    so change it up and kick em in the nads with your left foot.

  214. 214.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 11:31 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I think we WILDLY over-estimate the extent to which “normies” pay attention. This idea that they’re hugely sensitive to the specifics of Tweets is just not accurate.

    It has to be literal repetitive screaming before they even notice. It cannot be loud enough or blunt enough. They are not political obsessives. They follow other things. Anyone who knows who AOC is is not your audience.

  215. 215.

    Geminid

    September 2, 2021 at 11:31 am

    @Immanentize: Xeni Jardin (b. 1970):

           “Me when I was 20: ‘F#ck the system!’

     Me now: ‘For Heaven’s sake, don’t let the system collapse!'”

  216. 216.

    germy

    September 2, 2021 at 11:32 am

    Important thread from ProPublica reporter:

    BREAKING: We found 1000s of Trump supporters taking over local GOP positions — an unprecedented grassroots groundswell devoted to Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was stolen & Republicans need to stop that from happening again https://t.co/btjMNXvft3

    — Isaac Arnsdorf (@iarnsdorf) September 2, 2021

  217. 217.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 2, 2021 at 11:33 am

    @Llelldorin: What’s fun is that he literally lifted the term from the French.  Except the French term describes someone who is more of a Trustafarian than a well-off liberal.

  218. 218.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 11:33 am

    @Just Chuck: they shouldn’t have been wearing eyeglasses

  219. 219.

    catclub

    September 2, 2021 at 11:33 am

    @Baud: ​
      RINOS?

  220. 220.

    Steeplejack

    September 2, 2021 at 11:33 am

    @Cameron:

    It’s a portmanteau word for “bourgeois bohemians.”

  221. 221.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 11:34 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I think of the cable tv freak out over Afghanistan. Two solid weeks of screaming. When they asked Biden voters in California, they were “oh, I guess it was fine. He’s trying”. They don’t watch cable news. They hate news :)

  222. 222.

    Woodrow/asim

    September 2, 2021 at 11:36 am

    @Ksmiami: besides we can channel this into a push forward if it’s harnessed

    If you look up above you’d see I posted a number of orgs supporting abortion rights, already on the ground in TX, that could use support. I’m preparing a similar, longer post for my FB tonight, and likely my wee political newsletter as well.

    I’m already in motion, to get eyes on that push. I do not say what I said in ignorance of that rage, and the lack of hearing women, esp. Black Women, got on these issues — I worked Pro-Choice issues for a time myself, and this is a situation close to me for reasons I’ll keep to myself.

    I’m not the person to harness this, at this point in my life. Yet I will speak for focusing to do that harnessing, over allowing vengeance — for that is what I see a lot of, today — to overtake the groundwork so desperately needed.

  223. 223.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    September 2, 2021 at 11:37 am

    @Llelldorin: so, bobo makes as much academic sense as the ewing theory, bechdel test, & fairy pixy dreamgirl

    always knew david brooks was as idiotic & damaged as sportsboi bill simmons, nathan rabin, malcolm gladwell, alison bechdel, et al

  224. 224.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 2, 2021 at 11:38 am

    @RaflW: ​
      Go after GOP men for funding abortions. Report them on the hotlines. First, you know some of them have done it. Second, as LBJ (pace, raven) supposedly said about his opponent fucking pigs, “I just want to make him deny it.”

  225. 225.

    Kay

    September 2, 2021 at 11:40 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    How long did it take before 70% of people polled described Trump as a liar? Two solid years of multiple daily lies and every single high profile liberal yelling that he is a liar.

    That’s the grunt work required and there was no cleverness or messaging at all. It was “he is a LIAR” over and over and over. It’s just not what they pay attention to.

  226. 226.

    Baud

    September 2, 2021 at 11:41 am

    @WaterGirl: Not us Balloon Juice. Us, the broader left-of-center.

     

    @catclub: RINOs might face a primary, but they can count on loyal support in an election.

  227. 227.

    Faithful Lurker

    September 2, 2021 at 11:43 am

    @Chris Johnson: Amen. Thank you.

  228. 228.

    Miss Bianca

    September 2, 2021 at 11:44 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Man, you really have a thing about drum circles and giant puppets. You waste no opportunity to harp on those particular strings. Were you thrown out of a drum circle one time for having no rhythm? Did a giant puppet molest you? Jesus, dude.

  229. 229.

    catclub

    September 2, 2021 at 11:45 am

    @Kay: yep, this. let me repeat, this.

  230. 230.

    artem1s

    September 2, 2021 at 11:51 am

    @MJS:

    There has to be some fuckery available to us that can gum up this monstrosity of a law.

    There is, but we need to stop pretending that this isn’t an attack on all reproductive care and only affects women of childbearing age. I’m sick to the teeth with the Pro-Choice movement rolling out some Sandra Fluke example of someone who ‘needs’ reproductive care for the ‘right’ reasons.  Time to stop parsing around.  Health care should be a basic right even if it’s for women or trans or men who aren’t straight. No more half apology statements about supporting women’s choice but being personally opposed.  Opposed to what? Sluttery? Cadillac Welfare Queen daily trips to the PP Abortionplex? This approach is misogynistic to the core and only leads to watering down what few laws women have to back up the basic constitutional rights every man has at conception.

    No more parsing out ‘good’ abortions and ‘bad’ abortions and arguing about whether the pill or IUD is an abortifact. The point of contraception and abortions is to NOT have babies – contraception is in the view of the American Taliban an abortifact for that reason  alone.  If you can’t honestly say you would support a woman’s health care decisions without exception or brackets or moral clauses or timelines, you are not supporting equal rights for all humans.

  231. 231.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    September 2, 2021 at 11:51 am

    @Miss Bianca: Gotta punch the hippies and sissies.

  232. 232.

    James E Powell

    September 2, 2021 at 11:53 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Absolutely it’s us.

    From Catch-22, the greatest novel about America.

    These three men who hated [Clevinger] spoke his language and wore his uniform, but he saw their loveless faces set immutably into cramped, mean lines of hostility and understood instantly that nowhere in the world, not in all the fascist tanks or planes or submarines, not in the bunker behind the machine guns or mortars or behind the blowing flame throwers, not even among all the expert gunners of the crack Hermann Goering Antiaircraft Division or among the grisly connivers in all the beer halls in Munich and everywhere else, were there men who hated him more.

  233. 233.

    Jeffro

    September 2, 2021 at 11:54 am

    @MomSense: My age cohort, Gen X, had their brains wiped by Ronald Raygun. Look at all the Gen X Republican politicians. That’s why. Yes, there are exceptions but, for the most part, Dem pols are Boomers or Millenials.

    Agreed (as a fellow GenXer).  Reagan kids who grew up to be Gingrich teens – blech.

  234. 234.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    September 2, 2021 at 12:01 pm

    @MontyTheClipArtMongoose:

    bobo makes as much academic sense as the ewing theory, bechdel test, & fairy pixy dreamgirl

    I had to look up the Ewing Theory first, but I disagree. Unlike “Bobo”, each offers a descriptive term for a unique idea or concept.

    “Bobo” is a French term that Brooks misappropriated as a slur against the fancy pansies in glasses that Nazis and other monsters (Khmer Rouge, etc.) turn into an enemy of the state (with help from self-hating folks like Brooks).

    It’s a slur against the “creative class”, not an analysis.

  235. 235.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 12:05 pm

    @cain: Garland made his fame on going after organized crime if I recall. I don’t know what is required right now to go after Trump but as long as Biden has confidence in Garland – I’m willing to keep giving support.

    and Timothy McVeigh, IIRC. I’m open to the idea that Garland could be more aggressive and creative, but as a non-lawyer I believe that an indictment that doesn’t lead to a conviction can be even more dangerous than a case that’s not prosecuted; correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the reason Biden is going to get kicked around by the under-the-radar LieberCrat (on foreign policy) Bob Menendez got off the legal hook because Bob McDonnell of VA got his conviction overturned. That’s why I prefer Congressional hearings to criminal prosecutions for the trump crew. But as ever, events, dear boy, events! will intervene.

  236. 236.

    ArchTeryx

    September 2, 2021 at 12:07 pm

    @RaflW: This is war, pure and simple. Their sides’ handmaidens do not and SHOULD NOT get a free pass. They helped vote in this insanity. They should face the consequences. They’d never hesitate in suing YOU.

  237. 237.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 12:09 pm

    @Baud:

    ne thing the Republicans have on us is that they never lose focus on who their true enemies are.

    and they vote, from dog catcher up to President. Mona Charen was on the Hayes program last night, and I was reminded of the slogan she proposed for Bush (I) in ’92: “Only Four More Years”. (For the youngs, Poppy had betraaayed the Reagan Revolution by agreeing to a small tax hike)

  238. 238.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    September 2, 2021 at 12:12 pm

    @RaflW:

    Also, as @Immanentize observes, conservative women do get abortions. Go after that. (Damn this just is so awful. I don’t want to harass women who make legal choices about their own care. But the hypocrisy potential is life-threatening for the women who can’t afford a ‘spa weekend’ out of state).

    I’m so damn old, I remember Susan Carpeneter MacMillan– a nouveau et très riche professional cable guest who attached herself to Paula Jones. She claimed to be a long-time pro-life activist. It came out she had had an abortion in college, and she said that was why she became pro-life, out of regret. It came out she had had another abortion while a married rich lady in her thirties, and she said it was “therapeutic miscarriage” under a doctor’s supervision because of her health.

  239. 239.

    Jill

    September 2, 2021 at 12:13 pm

    Her brow must be furrowed right now@rikyrah:

  240. 240.

    Steeplejack

    September 2, 2021 at 12:14 pm

    @MontyTheClipArtMongoose:

    What’s your beef with Alison Bechdel? She seems legit to me. And Fun Home was a good book.

  241. 241.

    stinger

    September 2, 2021 at 12:43 pm

    @RaflW: Salve your conscience by giving the $10,000 bounty(ies) to TX Planned Parenthood.

  242. 242.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 2, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    @Kay: My experience of “normies” is that they’re more likely to say “both sides are crazy/extreme”–which really means “politics is nasty and unpleasant and I don’t like to bother with it.” And it is. One of the goals of these people who disrupt School Board meetings is to make sure it’s as unpleasant as possible, to reduce participation.

  243. 243.

    Uncle Cosmo

    September 2, 2021 at 1:01 pm

    @Baud:

    @James E Powell: Apparently, a big factor was that her (white female) opponent wasn’t a Maine “native.”

    Another major factor, IIRC, is her constituent service operation, which has been very active and effective for years. In a state the population of ME, it doesn’t take long to reach the point where near everyone is someone, knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone, who got help from Collins or her staff. Retail politics at its most basic, and damn hard for a challenger to dent.

  244. 244.

    No name

    September 2, 2021 at 7:50 pm

    @MontyTheClipArtMongoose: They did not ?

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